My Valentine
by Ronye
Summary: love story in the MMORPG Dragon Nest nuanced viewpoint sao because the story takes the characters in the game


Geez…Who thought today is going to suck like this. My Volcano Conqueror title hunt is pretty much deadlocked. I just need one more achievement to conquer this nest : Clear within 15 , the runs did not go too well. After changing partymany times, the result remains the same. Once again I wipe a sweat off my forehead. Today feels very hot, my clothes soaked with sweat. Around me, people are recruiting party members but no one ask me to join. Well, not surprising.

I feel like giving up. I go away from the crowd of Garden of Time and Space and sit on the chair to think about some plans to achieve my goal.

"Maybe I should improve my gear first and try again next month?"

"Or maybe I could go back there and find someone strong to help me?"

"But that's not something I can be proud of...I can't just get carried by people. Okay, firstI will upgrade my gear then."

I know that I am not strong enough in my current state. I came to this world two months ago and wasted almost half of this timeto level up until I reached the level cap. Now I am only a so-so Moonlord, nothing special at all but aiming for one of the top title already. Either I am just too greedy or just crazy.

I am just about to stand up when a hand pats me on the shoulder. I turn around. What I see is an archer with long white hair standing behind me. She looks strong. Wearing a full Epic grade costumes and holding +13 enhanced epic weapons is nojoke. But more importantly, she is very beautiful, makes me speechless for a moment. It is like I am seeing an angel right in front of me.

"Hi. Are you free? Wanna go to Volcano Nest with us?" she asks me.

"Huh? Eh.." I try to bring myself back to reality by shaking my head. She looks confused with my action.

"Are you okay?" she asks me again.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I was..umm..thinking. Can you repeat your question please?"

"Are you busy? We are about to go to Volcano Nest, but we are missing a member. Would you like to join us? " she's repeating her question.

"I'm free but I'm not strong. I don't think I will help you much"

She chuckles. "It's okay. I have two more people that are capable enough to clear Abyss difficulty. I'm just looking for one more person to fill the last slot."

I am still doubting myself due to my lack of damage in that difficulty. I kept failing today. I try to refuse one more time.

"Err..Why don't you just go over there and find someone strong? I'm pretty sure you will find one or two people better than me"

She frowns. "It's really crowded over there, it's exhausting so I try to stay away."

"Yeah, true. That's why I'm here." I agreed, not realizing that words were coming out of my mouth.

"So, why don't join us then?" Once again she asks me to join and this time I can't escape anymore. I reluctantly nod.

She sends the party invitation and I accept it.

I can see a beautiful smile appearing on her face. "Thanks for joining us. Nice to meet you, AzzRule."

She brings me to the place where the other guys are waiting. She walks in front of me. I'm looking at her name that shows up above her head. Estilea. I'm not sure how she pronounces it but for me it is a pretty name.

The other guys are waiting in theTrading House area. One of them is Issenken, a Moonlord just like me, but with a whole lot of better gear. I do not want to ask how strong heis because all of his legendary gear is telling me enough about it already. The other one is a Light Fury called xTsurumaru. His gear isn't as good as the others but he has theVolcano Conqueror title already,which means he is a skillful player. Estileaherself chose Artillery as her 2nd specialization. We talk a bit for the introduction and from there I know that they're nice people.

Now we are going to the portal of the nest.

"Any strategy for it?" I ask before we enter the portal. I do not want to be party's burden, so I want to know what their strategy is.

Estilea shakes her head, "Nothing, just fight and enjoy the run."

We enter the portal.

Once we are inside, we are transferred to first boss stage, Prophet Tepopo. The boss appears from the ground. I hold my sword tighter and prepare to attack. But then I feel a breeze passing through me.

"Eh? What whas that?" I am shocked.

It's her. She runs like a lightning, quickly and silently. She shoots an arrow right in Tepopo's head.

Tepopo fights back. It throws its trident but quickly she avoids it by jumping to the side. Another arrow hit its head and make it comes to her.

While Tepopo is busy with Estilea, Issenken and Tsurumaruattack from behind.

"Wow"

They are so good. Eventhough we didn't make any plans before, but their movements are synced perfectly. It's like they understand each other already. Issenken's damage makes this Abyss difficulty feelseasier. Neither of us has to worry about our HP, since Tsurumaru has such a good timing with his heals and a godly positioning so we can attack as much as we what is shocking me the most is Estilea. She is super takes the aggro from the boss alone and yet I don't even see her HP dropping more than 20%. While one reason for this is Tsurumaru's cures and heals,there is something more to this. While attacking the boss constantly, she dodgesalmost perfectly.

Secretly I send a Private Message to Issenkenand talk about her.

"Estilea is very good, right?"

I can see him laughing after reading the message. After calming down a bit he replies

"You know, she did a perfect dodge run in Guardian Nest. She said she will keep training here until she does the same thing here."

I gulped. Is he serious? That is on a completely different level of me. I don't know if other people can do that but that is awesome. Now I am a fan of her skill too.

One by one, bosses of each stages are knocked down. As expected, I didn't help much in this run. After just a short while we are about to reach last boss, The Phoenix Lavanok. By now, I am sick of seeing him, but with this party I am going to make it for sure. I will finally get this title.

I run to the center of the stage and wait for the Phoenix. As always, it will come down from the sky. I am ready for this.

I can see the Phoenix coming down, but something seems to be off. It is not just one Phoenix that is coming, but two!

"Wha…what?" I am panicked.

"Is it just me or you guys also see two Phoenixes here?" I can not believe what I am looking at.

"Yeah, we see it too. We might have encountered a bug." says Estilea.

"Haha…What a surprise. Just a perfect last banquet," Issenken grins.

"Yeah, It is just the sameafterall. We just need to kill them," says Tsurumaru.

"Alright, let's go!" Issenken runs forward and throws some sword energythrough Moon Blade Dance. We follow him and start the fight.

This is harder than I thought. Dodging both phoenixes attacks in different patterns is pretty hard. I almost died many times, but Tsurumaru is saving my life with his superb support ability. Estilea does very good job as always and Issenken keeps attacking like a mad man. I can feel his excitement, while I am here, scared of dying.

I try to help them since I am an attacker too but it ends up being a death of one of the party member. I jumped to dodge one of the Phoenix' stomp, unknowingly that the other one was trying to hit me with a punch. I was late to react to that, and if I got hit by it for sure I would die. I already closed my eyes and prepare myself to die, but thenI heard someone said something.

"Oi, oi. Isn't it too fast to give up?"

I opened my eyes instantly to see who was talking. It was Issenken. He somehow came up in front of me and tanked the attack for me. He got injured pretty heavily and almost died. He fell down to the ground. Tsurumaru runs toward him to heal but before he could reach him, the other Lavanok did another stomp.

"BAM!"

Both of them got hit. Issenken died due to it while Tsurumaru got injured quite badly also.

I lose my mind. This is my fault. I caused his death, and Tsurumaru is injured. I start thinking that we are going to lose. Unconsciously I drop my sword, then I hear Estilea shouting at me.

"Don't give up yet! We can still win this! Tsuru can heal himself, and don't mind about Issen. We can revive him later once we go back to town"

She is right. Death in this world does not mean disappearing completely. People who die in Nests or Dungeons will turn into ghost state, but their existence is still can revive them in town.

I grab my sword and fight back with her. Once he's done healing himself,Tsurumaru joins us. We try to kill one Phoenix first with Estilea as main damager, while Tsurumaru distracts the other Phoenix. I can not take my eyes off of Estilea this time. When we are being this close, she looks even better than before. The way she moves, the way she reacts, it's all a lot better than when we were fighting the previous bosses.

Suddenly she stares at me.

"What are you looking at?"

I am nervous to hear that. "Uh…nothing. Nothing at all"

She frowns, "Focus…or you might die as well"

"Ye-Yeah"

"Anyway, sorry to ask this but can you take the aggro for a second?"

"Eh? Why?" I'm confused.

"I am going to kill it with a single blow. But I need someone to take the aggro first"

"O-Okay. I will try"

I throw Moonlight Splitter, followed by Moon Blade Dance to get its attention. Once I get the aggro, Estilea jumps up on its head and blows it off with her Ultimate skill. We kill the first Phoenix.

"Woah," I'm amazed by it.

We move to the other Phoenix to help Tsurumaru. He did his job very well. He kept the other one away from us so we did not have to worry too much about it. We drop its HP faster compared to the first one, but when this phoenix' HP almost reaches its last bar, another bug appears. It suddenly teleports.

"Where did it go?" Tsurumaru asked.

We lose our focus for half a second, before Estilea realizes something.

"Oh shit! There!" She shouts.

We are too lateto realize that the Phoenix is behind us and ready to do a stomp in an instant.

"BAM!"

We are unable to avoid it.

"Gah!"

We lose almost all of our HP. The phoenix begins to cast a fire breath afterwards. I can not manage to avoid it in time. But then, Estilea grabs my hand and throws me outside the area of effect.

"Sorry, but I can't let you die here. You'll have to kill it." she says before the fire burns her body.

Tsurumaru could escape from the breathe and heal both of us. Now it's just two of us left. I am so scared, my hands are trembling and I can not concentrate at all. I feel guilty to both Issenken and Estilea for causing their death. I lose confidence.

"I can't do it. I can't do it. We are going to die," I feel like leaving the Nest.

But then, Tsurumaru encourages me.

"If you give up now, you will make her disappointed. She saved you to kill this boss. So, go and attack. Don't mind about your HP, I will heal you whenever you need. Do it for her."

I look at Estilea and Issenken's ghost form, try to regain my confidence and concentration.

"Yosh! Let's do this!"

I run forward and face the Phoenix by myself. I can't do it as good as Estilea. I got hit by some attacks and my damage is much lower compare to I do not worry at all because Tsurumaru is right behind me. As long as the boss HP keep decreasing, it will die soon enough. So all I need to do is to attack it with all of my strength.

We finished this Phoenix with an epic ending. I dodged its claw attack and from behind Tsurumaru threw Sunshine Sparks then followed by my Halfmoon Slash.

We cleared this Nest in less than 15 minutes. I get my Volcano Conqueror title with the cost of my team.I don't feel happy with it. I pass all the loots to Tsurumaru to show my gratitude and guilty feeling, and we go back to Saint Haven to revive the others.

The first thing I do after reviving them is scolding Estilea.

"What were you doing? Were you lost your mind by throwing me just like that?"

"Ahaha, sorry sorry. But you did it right? You killed the Phoenix"

"Yeah but I was so scared you know. I caused Issen's death and then yours. What am I suppose to feel for that?"

"Well yeah, again I apologize for scaring you like that. But you know why I threw you and why Issen jumped up in front of you? It was because we can't let you die. We were the one who asked you to join this party. So your safety is our responsibility."

She shows her beautiful smile again and I am speechless to her answer. This is the first time I meet a party that pay so much attention to the members like this.

After abit of conversation, we split up. I am just about to call Estilea back. I want to say that I am gonna send her a friend request, but in the end I did not do that. I am too scared –or shy, whatever-. So I let her go and disappear from my sight.

"maybe next time," I say to myself.

While months are passing, I continue my journey in Lagendia. I have improved a lot since then. I got new friends and even a fix party. It has been four months since that frightening run, but until today I haven't met them again. I really want to meet that Archer again. I cannot forget her. She keeps appearing in my mind. Her smile, her gestures, her voice, I cannot forget any of it. Maybe this is what people call "to fall in Love"?

I don't know where she is or what she is doing right now. But one thing I know is she is doing well here. I know that since I see her name always in the top 10 in Hero's Battlefield weekly ranking. Perhaps, it is okay if I will never meet her again. Knowing that she is doing good makes me relieve already.

Valentine is coming up and today Cherry Credits launched their first ever Valentine patch into Lagendia. This is an exclusive patch for South East Asia server only. Everyone is so excited. Unlike Halloween patch or Christmas where they changed the sky, in this patch the sky remains the same. Day of Destiny is replaced by a kind of cheerful song as Background Music of Saint Havenand I can see new decorations everywhere, even the Non Player Character's appearances are changed to pinky style. It is so exciting. I go around the city, enjoying all the new things in when I suddenly stop. I see her. The archer, Estilea. She is standing there, near theHeraldry Scholarship.

I clench my arms.

"This is my chance. The timing is perfect too. I have to tell her that I wanna be her friend. Maybe we can start to build relationship after that." I said to myself.

I go to the Trading House in a rush to buy something as a gift. After I got something nice, I bring it to her immediately. I don't want to lose her again this time. I step my foot in full spirit until I see someone come to her first before me. An Assassin. He is not the Light Fury from the run before. This one looks like Abyss Walker, atleast I think so because he is wearing a black suit. I see Estilea talking to him and he gives something to her. She looks happy with the gift and blushes when the Assassin is wiping her two look so close.

I feel like I am paralyzed by an invisible force that time. I Can't move, just seeing those two talk each other. My lips quivered without a single word that comes out, and it feels so hurt in my chest.

"What is it? Why do I feel like this?"

After a while, I can feel myself regaining control of body notices me and she waves her hand to me. She is smiling too.

"Huff…" I take a very deep breathe. A bitter smile appears on my face. I know what all that means without having to give it a second thought.

"Well, I think just being friends is enough."

I hide the gift in my inventory and walk towards them.

"Goodbye someone who I thought will be my Valentine."


End file.
